Door latch



Feb. 25, 1941. H. TER MEER ETAL 2,233,3513. DOOR LATCH Filed June 19, 1940 Patented Feb. 25, 1941 UNITED STATES 2,233,353 1 neon LArn Herman Ter Meer and Abraham Vander Henst, Grand Rapids, Mich., and Charles F. Bradfield, Portland, Oreg. assignrs to National Brass Company, Grand Rapids, Mich., a corporation of Michigan Application June 19, 1940, Serial No. 341,234

Claims. (or. 2923s9) 'Ihis invention relates to a door latch or look and it is primarily concerned with a n0vel improvement upon a door latch by means of which it can be very quickly and easily locked. against movement and quite as readily released rom movement. The latch with the lock of 0111 invention thereon is particularly applicable to bathroom doors, for example, which are to be locked from the inside.

One object and purpose of the present invention is to provide a look which being manually operable may be readily moved either ton its locked or unlocked position and also which if moved to its loeked position when the door is open, is aubomatically returned te unlocked position upon closing the door, therefore from the side of the door opposite that to which the look is mounted it is substantially insured that when the door is closed on leaving the room irrespective of what may have been the position of the look when the door is closed it will be in unlocked positi on for entrance into the room.

A further object of the invention is to provide a means for releasing the look from the outside 25 in case of emergency as, for example, when a child operates the look to its locking position and. does not know what to de te release the look.

A further object of the invention is to provide a lock which will werk under the conditione- 30 named and this irrespective of the fact. that with a swelling or shrinking of the door the extent of the inward movement of the latch bolt automatically taking place when the door is closed, at times does not fully and. completely release the 3 look, yet in all cases it will suficiently release the look that by turning a. knob of the latch the look wi1l then be fu11y released. Furthermore, when the look has been moved to its locked position any attempt to turn the door knob wll act to more flrmly held the locking mechanism in locked position.

These and many ether novelfeatures of operation with novel constructions toproduce the same may be understood. from the following de- 45 scription taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which,

Fig. 1 is a horizontal section through a rag mentary portion of a door and door casing showing a preferred construeti-on embodying Om in- 50 vention.

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the construction 1:0 which our invention is applied.

Fig. 3 is an elevation of the esoutcheon plate at the inner side of the door upon which-the 55 manually operable leek is mounted.

Fig. 4 is an inner elevation of such an escutcheen p1ate and the locking mechanism mounted thereon.

Fig. 5 is a vertical section therethrough, and

Fig. 6 is an elevation illustrating a position of the movable locking p1ate when t has not been moved to fully unlocked positon.

Like reference characters refer to like parts throughout the various views.

The latch to which -our invention is applied is mounted in a mortsed opening bored horizontally at the edge of the door I which door at its free vertical edge comes to a door casng 2 when it is clo-sed upon which is a strike plate 3. The latch consists of asubstantial cylindrical elongated housing 4 made in two parts which are held together at their ends by closure caps 5 and 6 which detachably connect with pins 1 on the parts of the housing 4, using bayonet slots as shown in Fig. 2. The cap 6 has a plate 8 secured at its outer end which is directly screw connected. to the door and through this plate and the end of the cap the beveled head 9 of the latch bolt passes.

The latch bolt in addition to the head 9 ineludes a rod l0 which extends lengthwise through the outer part of the housing, on which a transverse plate I I is mounted. with a coiled spring |2 between the head. 9 and the plate. The plate I I is held aganst inward movement in the housing but the red and the head. 9 may move inwardly with a consequent compression of the spring 12. At the inner end of the rocl l0 a second plate 13 is permanently connected and is movable with the rod, at its ends extendin through openings made en opposite sides of the housing 4. A yoke IJl of fiat metal is securecl at one end to the piate 1! and extends lengthwise through the middle portion of the housing and bears at its inner end against a coiled spring 15 which is seatecl against the closure cap 5.

A rock shaft or spindle I5 square in cross section passes transversely through the door and has a door knob I'l secured at each end. thereof. The spindle I6 extends through a rotatable actu. ating member I8 which is associated with the yoke I4 in such a manner that on rotation of the spindle 16 by turning either knob in either direction the latch bolt is retracted with a compression of the spring l5. 5

The structure so far described is a substantial duplicate of the latch eonstruction shown in PatentNo. 1,868984, issued July 26, 1932, upon the application of Albert F. Lickteig.

With our invention the escutcheon p1ate |9 at The escutcheon plate 2I at the inner side of the door is provided With dametrically oppo-sed open ings 22. A mounting plate 23 extends across the escutcheon plate and is housed therein and. has a connection at 24 at each end firmly securing the mounting plate to the escutcheon. This mounting plate is slotted at two places at 25 symmetrically with respect to the center line of the mounting plate 23 and the metal at one side thereof is pressed inwardly to make a gude 26.

The metal at the other side of the mounting plate is likeWise Press'ed inwardly in the same manner but has the central portion of it removed providing two oiset lips 21. A locking plate 28 is slidably -n0unted to ride upon the centra] portion 23a (Fig. 6) of the mounting plate 23 and between such central portion and the parts 26 and '21. The locking plate at each end has an outturned finger enga'geable tongue 29 passing each through an opening 22 in the escutcheon 2l. At the end of the locking plate nearest the edge of the door a fiat ear 30 is permanently secured and extends inwardly substantially to the housing 4 of the latchand into the path of the plate [3 on the rod I0 (Fig. 1).-

The locking p1ate 28 has an opening 3| therethrough of the form shown in Figs. 4 and. 5 substantally at its niddle portion. At one end this opening is large enough so that the -spiridle I6 which passes through the plate may be freeiy turned or rocked about its axis. Toward the opposite end portion the opening is reduced in Width by the humps 32 which extend tovvard each ether. These humps or projections are spaCed apart a distance substantially equal to the diameter of the spindle I6 between its fiat sides and have convex edges and where they nearest approach each other are far enough apart that the spindle l' may pass therebetween but when between thein cannot be turned. The locking -plate 28 and the part 26 of the guide or mounting plate 23 'are provided with cooperating i1idents 33 so that the locking plate is yieldingly held at its two extreme positions of movement.

It is evident that with the locking piate 28 moved to the position shown in Figs. 1 and 4, the projectionsor humps at 32 are dsposed at opposite sides of the squared spindle I6 and the latch is held against operation and the door locked against opening. The highest points of the humps 32 in such position are dsposed (as in Fig. 4.) a slight distance to one side of the center of the bar [6 whereby any attempted rocking movement of the bar will have a tendency to move the locking plate further to the right in Fig. 4; therefore, there is insurance against the look iailing as its operative locking position is maintained and it is rendered more positive by attempted rocking of the spindle I6. If however, the parts were in locking position wi-th the door in an open position and then the door was closed, and inward movement of the 1atch bolt as the head ther'eof rides over the strike plate 3 moves the inner end plate I 3 inwardly against the bar 30 and moves the plate 28 to unlocked position. If, as occurs at times through a shrinking of the door the inward moveneiit of the locking bolt is not sufiicient that the plate 28 is moved to its extreme position but occupies a position relative to the spindle I6 similar to that shown in Fig. 6, an attempted roking of the spindle I6 wi1l thereupon carry the plate further toward its unlocking position. This, by reason of the fact that the corners of the spindle wil1 be closely adjacent or Will bear against the convex edges of the humps 32 and, when the spindle is turned, a camming action will take place movng the locking plate toward the left in Fig. 6.

If the door for any reason is locked at the inside and is in closed position the look may be release'd from the outside by inserting an implernent such as a flat bar 34 of the form shown through the opening 20 to engage with the ear 3and move the locking plate 28 to its unlocked position, as indicated in Fig. 1.

The construction des cribed is very practical and usef1l, asily and. simply made, effective in ope'ration and has proved oommereially practical. The invention is defined in the appended claims and is to be considered comprehensive of al] forms of structure coming within their scope.

We claim:

1. In a look having a retraotable latching bolt and a rock shaft, the rocking of which in either direction will retract the bolt, the combination of an escutcheon plate associated With the rock sh'aft and through which said shaft passes, a

locking plate slidably mounted at the inner side of said =escutcheon plate having an elongated opening through which the rock shaft passes,

said opening being of substantially the same width at each end thereof and having inwardiy extending projections nearer one end than the other suiiciently Spaced that the rock shaft may lie therebetween when the locking plate is moved 3. In a 1atch construction adapted to be applied to 2. door, -said latoh c0nstruction having a oprably associated with said bolt to retract it on rocking the sh'aft in either direction, and said bolt at its outer portion being adapted for invvard movment Without opration of said rock shaft, the combination of an escutcheon plate adapted to be attached to the door through which the rockshaftpasses, a locking plate movablyrnounted at the inner side of the escutcheon plate and havihga part extending through said escutoheon plate f01 manual operation, said locking plate having an elongate'd slot through which the rock shaft passes of a sizeat one end whereby the rock shaft may freely rock ineither direction, the other endof said slot beingof the same width as the first end but being reduced in width for a short distance adjacent said ther end portion by an inwardly extending projection, whereby when the plate is moved to bring said projection to a side of the rock shaft, "said rock shaft is held against rotation, said rock shaft having a fiat surface substantially againstvhich said projection engages when thus moved.

4. A construction containing the eleinents in combination defined in claim 3, combined With 2. bar attachedt'o' the look ng plate and adapted to extend inwardly into the path of m'ovement retratable bolt and prvided witha rock shaft of the inner end of sad lockng bolt, whereby t is engaged by the locking bolt and the lockng plate moved from operative lockng to unlockng poston on inward movement of the locking bolt produced other than by the operation of said rock shaft.

5. A latch comprising, 2 retractable bolt, an

oscillatable spindle having opposed fiat sides and connected to retract said bolt, and a movable 30 plate to permt and prevent oscllaton of sad spindle, sad pate haivng an elongated opening therein through which sad spndle passes having enlarged portions at each end thereof and a. smaller portion therebetween, said spindle beng freely rotatable in one of sad enlarged portons, but not rotatable when withn said smaller portion, as specified.

HERMAN TER MEER.

ABRAHAM VANDER HENST.

CHARLES F. B-RADFIELD. 

